"If you come up a single step I'll squash you flat with this volume!"

Gideon laughed, and replied--

"Don't get angry, friend; I don't mean to do you any harm; on the
contrary, I greatly respect you for your learning; but what I want to
know is what you are doing here so early in the morning, by lamplight?
You look as if you had spent the night here."

"So I have; I have been reading all night."

"Are not the days long enough for you to read in?"

"No; I am following out an important inquiry, and I don't mean to sleep
until I am satisfied."

"Indeed; and what may this very important question be?"

"I have to ascertain under what circumstances Ludwig of Nideck discovered
my ancestor, Otto the Dwarf, in the forests of Thuringia. You know,
Sperver, that my ancestor Otto was only a cubit high--that is, a foot and
a-half. He delighted the world with his wisdom, and made an honourable
figure at the coronation of Duke Rudolphe. Count Ludwig had him inclosed
in a cold roast peacock, served up in all his plumage. It was at that
time one of the greatest delicacies, served up garnished all round with
sucking pigs, gilded and silvered. During the banquet Otto kept spreading
the peacock's tail, and all the lords, courtiers, and ladies of high
birth were astonished and delighted at this wonderful piece of mechanism.
At last he came out, sword in hand, and shouted with a loud voice--"Long